


Just A Fingerprint Of Lipstick's Not Enough

by Silveny-Dreams (VintageOT5)



Category: Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger
Genre: F/M, Kissing, Sleepovers, Sophie POV, Sophie as a Vacker AU, Truth or Dare, keefe pov, so apparently i didnt get sokeefe out of my system with that last one shot, so heres another, third person, this is more pg-13 than pg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 22:00:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20235049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VintageOT5/pseuds/Silveny-Dreams
Summary: When Sophie moved to the elven world, she chose to stay with the Vackers and they adopted her into their family. Fitz's best friend, Keefe Sencen, is strictly off-limits to either of his little sisters. No matter how Sophie--and Keefe--both feel.Sophie hopes some truth-or-dare can shake some things up.





	Just A Fingerprint Of Lipstick's Not Enough

**Author's Note:**

> This was especially sad to write because there was NO GRADY AND EDALINE, and I love them with a burning passion. But this idea wouldn't stop nagging at me, so here it is.
> 
> Fic title is from "No Control" by One Direction--I think it describes the tension between these two idiots very well. Enjoy!

In all honesty, Sophie didn’t like Truth or Dare. She’d seen the mess it could make of friendships and relationships, all under the guise of being a silly, meaningless game. It wasn’t a silly and meaningless game—it was a disguise to grossly invade the privacy of everyone playing it. And she didn’t care for that at all.

But now, when her adoptive sister, Biana, _finally_ convinced their brother, Fitz, to let all of their friends take a stab at Truth or Dare at this latest sleepover, Sophie couldn’t help but be a little excited. But she kept up a good poker face for Fitz, since he was turning out to be the overprotective kind of brother who wanted to protect the honor of his sisters.

It didn’t help that the reason for Sophie’s excitement was a certain blond boy who just so happened to be Fitz’s best friend.

In fact, that might have been the absolute worst reason she could have had.

When Sophie came to the elven world and began living with the Vackers, her new adoptive family, there were a few things she’d learned fairly quickly. The first was that Biana had a hopeless (Biana’s word for it, not Sophie’s) crush on someone Sophie had befriended on her very first day at Foxfire—Keefe Sencen, a Level Four who also happened to be Fitz’s closest, oldest friend. Sophie could remember the night when she and Biana had finally broken the ice between them and gotten to know one another, and how Biana had agonized about this crush.

“It’s been years, Sophie. I’ve liked him for years and it’s hopeless,” Biana had sighed. “And even if I ever found out that Keefe liked me back, it would _still_ be hopeless.”

“Why?” Sophie had asked, trying not to dwell on the way Keefe had smirked at her that first day, the way his ice-blue eyes had glittered with so many secret things.

“Because of Fitz! Keefe and Fitz are best buddies. They’ve been close for, like, four years now,” Biana bemoaned. “And Fitz has made it very, _very_ clear that trying to go out with Keefe will be the last thing I ever do. He says he couldn’t stand the idea of his baby sister and his best mate dating and shutting him out entirely. And I’ve _told_ him, that would never happen, we both love him too much, but of course he never listens to me.”

Sophie almost felt like that conversation had been cursed. Because ever since that night, ever since learning that Keefe was definitely off-limits, it was like Sophie couldn’t stop noticing him. And it was like Keefe went out of his way every day to interact with her, so she couldn’t even try to ignore him and move on. Every day, he was there at her locker to tease her about how stressed she was, to fluster her, to exchange banter. If Sophie hadn’t secretly enjoyed every moment of it, it would have been enough to drive Sophie absolutely insane.

There were loads of times that she’d thought she’d seen something like interest in Keefe’s eyes, too. Like the night the Vackers and Keefe had all had an aurenflare and Biana had lent Sophie this pretty red tunic. Keefe had stared at her until she’d gotten self-conscious and asked what was wrong. And then very quickly he’d stopped, said it was nothing, but she’d caught him giving her little glances all throughout the aurenflare, a spark of...something, in his eyes.

There were times when they had somehow caught each other alone at Everglen, too, where the banter seemed to flirt with the line Fitz had set that neither of them could cross. Too many times had Keefe gotten up close and personal to her, all under the guise of getting under her skin. Sophie was no Empath, but even she could see the way Keefe bit his lip, how warmly his eyes burned when he looked at her, how he would reach out almost to touch her in some way or another and then pause, as if he was actively restraining himself. Sophie knew that her body language likely mirrored his in some ways...it felt like some invisible force field kept them from really getting to each other.

Sophie both hated and loved that force field. No matter how much she wished she could have a shot with Keefe, Sophie had no desire at all to see both Fitz and Biana’s reactions if they both found out. She wasn’t related to them by blood—cooperating and doing what she could to fit in with them was her only shot at the Vackers feeling like real family to her.

And so it went, every day, with Sophie holding tight to each little fleeting moment when it seemed like she and Keefe clicked, despite all the warnings.

Until tonight. Sophie was almost dreading it, but the thought of something—_anything_—that might give her an excuse to interact with Keefe without Biana’s eyes narrowing or Fitz’s disappointed gaze was too great.

“Everyone ready?” Biana asked brightly, plunking a bowl full of little slips of paper in the middle of where all their friends were sitting.

Tam eyed the bowl warily. “What is that?”

“Oh, just a little upgrade to this game I thought I’d make,” Biana replied breezily. “It’s what I’m calling the Bowl of Consequences.”

“Oh god,” Fitz groaned. “What did you do?”

Biana winked at Sophie, and Sophie grinned. “Oh, it’s not that big a deal. Don’t be such a baby. It just means that if you decide to opt out of answering a truth or doing a dare, you’ll have to do the opposite one, no questions asked—with the person whose name you draw from the bowl.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Linh admitted. “At least if you have no choice but to do a dare, you’ll have a partner in crime to help you.”

“Sounds like it could be a recipe for disaster,” Dex commented.

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Fitz said, agreeing.

“Nope! It’s too late to back out now,” Biana insisted lightly, but Sophie could tell by the fire in Biana’s eyes that she meant business. “I’ve got these cards here with both a truth and a dare on it. We’ll go around and take turns grabbing one and choosing someone to pick on.”

It was almost as awful as Sophie had feared. The truths were all invasive, the dares were all ridiculous, and plenty of the dares were physical or romantic in nature—tied fifty-fifty with dumb dares like “hop around on one foot and spin in a circle while reciting the ABCs backwards”. You didn’t know which one you’d get, but the invasive truth questions were almost enough to make Sophie consider taking her chances with a dare.

At one point Marella picked Keefe, and the look in her eyes was so mischievous that even Keefe balked and picked truth.

“Describe the romantic partner of your dreams,” Marella read off of the card, looking a little disappointed.

Keefe groaned as the rest of their friends started laughing. “How am I even supposed to answer this honestly if I don’t know the answer myself?”

“No copouts!” Biana sang, eyes filled with glee. “Unless you’d like to risk the Bowl of Consequences!”

“Ooh, that could be fun,” Keefe considered, smirking right at Sophie. Sophie scowled at him, doing her best to stop her stomach from doing somersaults and her face from flushing bright red.

He reached his hand out towards the bowl, mischief all over his face, then pulled back at the last second and said, “Nah, I’ll try to answer, I guess.”

Sophie could see Biana watching Keefe, everything about her the picture of casual…except the intensity of her gaze.

Sophie decided to be a little more subtle than her sister, grabbing her cup of lushberry juice and taking a long, studious sip while she glanced at Keefe.

“I guess all I know is that whenever I meet the person of my dreams, I’ll know them when I see them,” Keefe said, shrugging, and his gaze flickered to meet Sophie’s over Fitz’s head.

Well, crap. Sophie wasn’t prepared for that look, for the quiet, intense certainty of his ice-blue gaze. She choked on her lushberry juice, and chose to just let it happen, doing a spit take and coughing to catch her breath as the rest of her friends laughed at Keefe’s answer.

“You good?” Fitz asked her, clapping her soundly on the back as Sophie struggled to catch her breath.

“Yeah, you sure you’re okay?” Keefe asked, and the genuine concern in his voice didn’t match the pure teasing in his grin.

“That was really cheesy,” Sophie told Keefe in a raspy voice, making the rest of her friends laugh again.

Keefe grinned sheepishly in defeat. “Fair enough, fair enough. Someone else take a turn.”

Sophie pointedly ignored Keefe’s intent glance at her as the game moved on.

All Sophie could do was thank the stars that she’d only been picked on once so far—she’d risked Tam’s dare, and it had been to crab-walk around her circle of friends three times, which was better than she’d dared to hope.

But her luck couldn’t last forever.

“Ah, let’s see, let’s see, who will I pick on this time?” Keefe asked, pondering aloud in mock-thoughtfulness.

Sophie rolled her eyes and tried to ignore the way her pulse picked up. She stared into the Bowl of Consequences to avoid his gaze.

“Looks like Foster’s avoiding me. We have a winner!”

Sophie groaned as her friends laughed.

“Truth or dare?” Keefe asked her, reading the card over and grinning before flicking his gaze up to hers.

Sophie’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t like that look. Um…truth.”

Keefe’s grin stayed just as wicked as he read off of the card. “‘Confession time! Tell the group a secret you’ve avoided telling everyone’.”

Oh, god. Nope. Nope. Nooooooope. Not happening.

“Biana,” Sophie asked, trying to keep her voice even, her face feeling like it was on fire. “How does the Bowl of Consequences work again?”

“Ooh, I’m glad you asked!” Biana squealed. “Okay, so, are you officially choosing to forfeit answering the truth? You can’t take it back!”

Sophie stared at Keefe in suspicion. He’d looked highly pleased with himself when she picked truth, so maybe the dare wasn’t as interesting as she’d feared. “Um. Yeah. Sure, why not?”

Biana grinned. “Okay! Now, Keefe, you have to read the dare.”

To Sophie’s horror, Keefe’s grin got even wider. He cleared his throat and held up the card, reading it aloud.

“‘Pucker up! Plant a kiss on one of the other players’.”

Sophie felt her stomach drop into her shoes. There literally could not have been a worse option. “Wait, I take it back, I—”

“You can’t take it back!” Biana crowed, grinning and waggling her eyebrows. “You already forfeited! For this dare, we’ll say that the person whose name you draw out of the bowl is the person you have to kiss. Better yet, let’s make the person whose name you draw have to kiss _you_.”

That sounded so, so much worse. “Are you sure I have to do this?”

“Rules are rules,” Biana said, shrugging and grinning at her sister. “I pray you choose wisely.”

God, so did Sophie.

And then, all at once, she knew _exactly_ how this was going to play out. She glanced at Keefe, who watched her intently, one eyebrow raised. He didn’t look quite as thrilled as he had earlier, but he still had traces of his smug smile on his face.

Oh, those would be going away quickly.

Sophie reached deep into the bowl, pulling out a slip of paper and unfolding it close to her face.

She faked a very convincing scoff. “Keefe.”

And then she folded the paper back up and thrust it back down into the bowl.

“_What?”_

Both Biana and Fitz looked dumbfounded, and Sophie felt her face burn bright red. She shrugged, like this was no big deal, and turned to Keefe.

Keefe looked partly like he’d been struck on the back of the head with a Metaphysics textbook, and partly like he was staring into the abyss. Sophie raised an eyebrow and folded her arms across her chest. “Your move, Sencen.”

For a heart-shattering second, it looked to Sophie like Keefe wanted to do literally anything other than follow through on the dare. But in a quick moment, Keefe’s composure was back, and he smirked, although it didn’t reach his eyes.

“A dare’s a dare.”  
Sophie swallowed, her mouth feeling dry, and she decided to stay put and shut her eyes. If she just let it happen, then she couldn’t be blamed for anything. It was the perfect storm of circumstances.

There was a pause, a silence in her friends, and Sophie heard someone sitting up and leaning forward. She took a slow, deep breath, readying herself.

And then she felt someone grab her wrist and pull it out, press a kiss to the top of her hand, let go of her hand and lean back.

Sophie opened her eyes, stunned, as everyone around her erupted in laughter. Keefe leaned back into his seat, a small look of relief in his eyes, but he didn’t join the rest of them in laughing.

Sophie forced herself to laugh along with them, to act relieved, and nodded casually to Biana to grab the next card, winking at her. Biana looked relieved, as well, and Sophie didn’t like that she hated that relief.

Only a couple more cards were played before Fitz declared that the game was over. He nodded at Dex, who looked thrilled, and Dex proceeded to tell them that he’d hijacked a human TV and some movies, and that they could have a movie night down in the living room.

“I picked this movie Sophie told me about, _Love, Simon_?” Dex said as they all stood up and left Fitz’s room, where all the shenanigans had gone down.

“Oh, god,” Sophie muttered. Just what she needed—more romance.

She was _sick_ of romance tonight. Absolutely sick of it.

Everyone got comfy on the couches and Dex started the movie. Sophie settled on the floor in front of the couch and actually tried to pay attention, mainly because if the movie caught her attention enough, maybe she’d forget about Keefe sitting behind her on the couch. Keefe, who’d kept giving her looks and hints, who hadn’t wanted to kiss her.

“Need more lushberry juice,” Sophie mumbled and excused herself to the kitchen to give herself at least five minutes’ reprieve from being around him.

But as she poured more juice into her cup, her luck ran out; Keefe walked into the kitchen with the snack bowl.

Sophie set her cup down on the counter with a clank. “You. Walk with me. Now.”

She didn’t wait for Keefe to react. She spun on her heel and strode back into the hallway behind the kitchen.

It was a few moments, but then she heard Keefe’s following footsteps behind her. She glanced around the hallway and found the library door open, ducking inside and clapping on the lights.

She whirled around to face Keefe as he closed the door behind them. She didn’t give him any room to speak again and asked, “Why did you do that?”

She’d have the truth, one way or another.

***

Nothing all night long had been able to distract Keefe from his misery. The entertaining dares and the embarrassing truths throughout the game hadn’t been enough; the movie wasn’t enough. Nothing had been enough to distract him from drinking in Sophie, from watching her shy half-smiles and her laughs, her scowls and sarcastic retorts. It was like torture. She was right there—_right there_—and yet it felt like she was a million miles away.

And he couldn’t even _think_ about that dare. That had been the only possible way to save himself from being the most embarrassing person alive, and to keep from embarrassing her in front of all their friends.

And now, when he was finally alone with Sophie, he could feel the righteous anger rolling off of her in stiflingly hot waves.

“Why did I do what?” He asked, playing dumb.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Sophie accused, the big brown eyes Keefe loved so much blazing with anger.

“You mean why did I follow through on the dare? A dare’s a dare, Foster.” He folded his arms over his chest, allowing himself to stare as long as he wanted, now that Fitz wasn’t there to notice.

“You didn’t follow through on that dare—you completely embarrassed me. Everything was going just fine until you ruined it!”

“Me?” Keefe blinked, not sure he believed his ears. “I ruined the game for you?”

“Yes.”

“How?” Keefe frowned.

Sophie glared at him, and Keefe was shocked to find little hints of hurt in her eyes. “You didn’t kiss me.”

“I…” Keefe stared at her in bewilderment, caught off-guard. “I _did _kiss you.”

“On the hand,” Sophie growled. “Which means absolutely nothing.”

Keefe couldn’t understand how his acting to spare her awkwardness and embarrassment had been taken so wildly out of proportion. “I did that on purpose, Foster. For you.”

“To do what? To keep up my awful reputation of being the weird human girl?” Sophie fire back scornfully. “If you’d actually kissed me, it only would have helped. But you rejected me in front of everyone, and now they’ll keep thinking something’s wrong with me, like they’ll catch human germs or something if they interact with me.”

“I didn’t _reject_ you, what—”

“Well, that’s what it felt like, you jerk!”

Keefe blinked, still reeling. “I’m not a jerk! If I’d kissed you in front of everyone, _that _would have made me a jerk.”

He paused before adding, “And there’s nothing wrong with you. No one thinks you’ve got some weird contagious human thing or whatever. Why would you say that?”

“I’m the only elf who doesn’t know anything about being an elf. No one wants to hang out with me except in that ‘look, I’m friends with the weird human girl’ way. And certainly no one wants to kiss me.”

Okay, this was getting to be too much. Sophie Foster was furious because he hadn’t done the exact thing he’d been wanting to do since the first hour they’d met three whole years ago. He’d _done the right thing_, for pete’s sake, and instead of being grateful for it she was angry.

“…am I really that repulsive?” Sophie was ranting. “Would it really have been that gross?”

He’d wanted a shot with Sophie for so long. He’d had to remind himself a thousand times of all the reasons that it couldn’t happen. And it was this much worse, now, realizing that maybe Keefe had read her emotions right…maybe she _did_ feel the same way about him, after all. Something he’d never dared to hope for.

Another minute and he was going to come unhinged.

“…don’t know how to do whatever it is elves are supposed to do without throwing a goofy human thing into the mix,” Sophie was grumbling. “And when I finally had the chance to look like I wasn’t the human freak after all, you—why do you look like that?”

Sophie frowned, eyeing his face with curious concern.

“Look like what?”

“Like you’re in pain.”

Pain. Yes. This was definitely pain, the way someone felt when he’d pined after someone for years and was finally alone with them and then had to hear them complain about how he hadn’t kissed them when all he’d wanted to do was pull her into his lap and kiss the hell out of her almost every minute of every day.

Keefe felt like every muscle, every bone in his body, had stiffened to a point where movement would hurt. Struggling to keep some control, he took deep, slow breaths, but he could smell the fruity, floral scent of the soap she used, and _god, _this was hopeless.

He didn’t remember reaching for her, but suddenly his hands were on her upper arms, and he was backing her slowly against the nearby bookcase. He tried, tried and failed, not to notice how warm she was to the touch, how easily she moved under his hands.

Those big, brown eyes were wide, startled. “What are you doing?”

“I need you to answer something honestly,” Keefe murmured. “Why did you say my name for that dare?”

Emotions crossed her face and rolled off of her, almost too quickly to distinguish—surprise, guilt, embarrassment. He tried not to enjoy how her face flushed pink. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Your name was on the paper. I didn’t have a cho—”

“Liar,” Keefe whispered, stepping even closer.

His heart stopped when she didn’t say anything. She wasn’t going to deny it.

“My name wasn’t on that paper,” he murmured, “but you said it anyway. Why?”

He knew that _she_ knew there could only be one reason. Keefe closed his eyes briefly, trying to temper down his racing pulse, the adrenaline clouding his mind.

Sophie hesitated, refusing to look at him. “I just wanted to know what you…how you…I just wanted…”

God, she was going to kill him if she kept this up. He tried to make himself let go of her, take a step back, give them both some air, but his hands couldn’t bring themselves to stop holding her arms. It felt too good, standing here like this, breathing in the air around her, no holds barred on drinking her in. He stared down at her mouth, watching her bite her lower lip, and it was almost too much.

_One time_, Keefe thought desperately. _One kiss, get her out of my system_.

But he knew he was lying to himself. If he started, he was fairly certain he wouldn’t be able to stop.

“I think I need to tell Fitz that he and I should just hang out at my house from now on,” Keefe said. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to be around you.”

Sophie still wouldn’t look at him. “Because I’m the freaky human girl.”

“No. That’s not—”

“I’m repulsive.”

“Foster, would you stop—”

“Not even worth a single crummy truth or dare kiss.”

“All right,” Keefe snapped. “All right, damn it. You win. I’ll kiss you.”

Sophie’s gaze finally snapped up to his, riddled with suspicion. “Why?”

_Because it’s all I can think of doing half the time_. “Because if I don’t, you’ll never stop complaining about it.”

Sophie’s face flushed even pinker, and the anger was back in her eyes. “Yeah, well, it’s too late now! You should have kissed me when we were playing the game, but you didn’t, and now that I’m still doomed to be too freaky for normal elven interaction or anyone else kissing me, I’m not going to settle for some half-assed pity kiss.”

Keefe felt the last string of his self-control snap. _“Half-assed?_”

He could see in her eyes the second she realized she’d made a mistake. But it was too late—the shreds of his restraint were gone. She’d sealed her fate.

“I-I meant to say half-_hearted_,” she said, breathless. She tried to wriggle away from him, but Keefe loomed ever closer to her. “It’s obvious you _don’t _want to kiss me, so—”

“You said half-assed.” He crowded even closer in to her until their chests were touching, and he could feel the butterfly-wing touch of her soft breath against his cheek. “Which means now I’ve got something to prove.”

“No, you don’t,” she said quickly. “Really, you don’t—”

She made a little squeaking noise as Keefe slid one hand behind her neck, and the rest of the sound was muffled as he brought their mouths together.

Keefe knew it was wrong the instant their lips touched. Because nothing, _ever_, was going to rival the perfection of Sophie Foster in his arms. He was ruined for life. God help him, he didn’t care.

Her mouth was soft, white-hot like sunshine, like she could purify all the dark thoughts he’d ever had about himself, like she could change his mind about what kind of person he was. She gasped when he slid the tip of his tongue, ever so gently, along her lower lip.

Slowly, her hands came up to his shoulders, and then he felt her fingers on the back of his head, sliding through his hair and holding, to keep him from pulling away.

And there wasn’t a chance in hell of that happening. Nothing could make him stop.

He felt his fingers shake slightly as he slid his hand from her neck to the line of her jaw, letting his thumb trail gently across her cheek. God, she was perfect, she was _everything_ Keefe had dreamed she’d be, and she was more, even more. It brought him to heights of an aching longing he didn’t think could ache any harder, and yet he was wrong. He kissed her harder, deeper, exploring all the ways their mouths could fit together, drinking her all the way in, until she breathed in long sighs, molding herself against him.

He let her feel how strong he was, how solid, one of his arms clamped firmly around her back. She was strong, he knew that—he knew that and he liked it—but since she was content to melt into him, he’d be the strong one this time. And he had to admit, he really enjoyed how soft she could be when she wanted to, how easily she fit against him, how much she wanted what he gave.

He sank his fingers into the hair at the back of her head and tugged until her head craned up, exposing her neck. He bent and pressed open-mouthed kisses along her jaw and downward, searching for the pulse he could have sworn he’d seen jumping earlier, when she’d had her eyes closed, waiting for him in truth or dare. He found a spot that made her shiver against him and slowly, painstakingly, he let his teeth sink gently to the spot.

She gasped against him, and he grinned against her skin when he felt her jaw clench against any little sounds she wanted to make. She couldn’t help, them, though—he could feel them vibrate against his lips.

What would it be like to do this any day, Keefe thought in a daze as he kissed his way back up her neck, finding the warmth of her mouth with his again. What would it be like to be with her, loud and proud? To be her boyfriend? To hold her hand in the halls at school, to cut class and find some little alcove to kiss her in, to sit at the lunch table with their knees touching underneath as they laughed with friends…to have her over to his house—he’d never had _anyone_ over to his house, not while he was there, anyway—to watch her frown at his parents and to hear her tell him that he was worth a thousand of them…and for moments like these, where it felt like they were meshed together, like they couldn’t get enough of each other.

God, it would be like heaven.

She should have struggled against him, should have told him to back off, but there was only softness, only her own fierce desire to kiss him back, and it did nothing for his restraint. He began ravishing her mouth with slow, deep, twisting kisses, and something in his chest curled in delight when she met his enthusiasm with his own.

He could do this forever, but he needed her to know something. Lifting his mouth from hers, Keefe pressed his jaw against her temple.

“I think,” he said, his breathing ragged, “this answers any question about whether I think you’re worth kissing or not.”

Sophie said nothing, just struggled to catch her breath against his neck, her fingers curled in the fabric of his shirt.

God, if he didn’t get his self-control back together right now, he was going to lean back in and start this all over again, and if they stayed gone from the movie for much longer, people were going to get suspicious.

“Keefe,” Sophie said thickly, and holy crap, that did _nothing_ for Keefe’s self-restraint.

“Yes?”

“You said earlier that you didn’t want to embarrass me by kissing me for truth or dare,” she murmured. “Why?”

Keefe scoffed. “From what literally just happened, I’d think that’d be obvious.”

“You mean you would’ve…_that?_ In front of all of…_ohhh_.”

Keefe chuckled and leaned back, finally giving them both air. “I got a feeling old Fitzy would be none too happy about that.”

Sophie’s bright, breathless look faded at the mention of her brother. “Ah. Right.”

“I wouldn’t want to make them angry with you,” Keefe murmured, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear. “I don’t want to be the reason people hurt you.”

She sighed, pouting, and the way her lip poked out made him want to lean in and tug on her lip with his teeth. _Bad, bad idea_.

Slowly, he moved aside to let her go.

Understanding the silent signal, Sophie began to brush by him. But as her arm bumped his, Keefe discovered that his self-control wasn’t all the way back, after all. He caught her wrist in his fingers, and suddenly she was in his arms again. He couldn’t stop himself from covering her mouth with his again, kissing her as if they belonged to each other, as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

_This is what I hold back around you all the time_, Keefe told her with fierce, consuming kisses. _This is what I wish we could do every day_. He felt new tension in her limbs, felt her tensing to grab him and hold on, never letting go—

No. That was the absolute worst thing that could happen right now. They’d been gone long enough as it was. Groaning, he tore himself away from her and gave her a gentle push towards the door. Away from him.

Sophie fled the library immediately, leaving Keefe standing there, catching his breath, staring after her, wishing she was still here, wishing a million other impossible things.

And Keefe wondered bleakly how he was going to interact with her in a normal way ever again.

**Author's Note:**

> COMMENT AND LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS :)
> 
> I'm @silveny-dreams on tumblr if you wanna come scream about these two dorks with me there, too. I also make those Tasty Keeper Memes, too, if that's more your style.
> 
> Thanks for reading, y'all! Much Love xx


End file.
